Sunday, May 8, 2016

New Bike

So as you can probably guess I've got myself a new bike. Lusted after KTMs for years, wanting an RC8 == but realizing it would be track only, as my local roads are shit, and you really couldn't do much with a machine like that other than risk your licence and yell into your helmet on the daily commute. Next best thing was that the local KTM dealer had a new old stock Duke 690 sitting on the floor for a year. A pre-season price drop and I pulled the trigger. It is obvious its such a niche machine as when I took it out for a test drive it had 1 km on it. Now that it's mine I've put every km on it myself.

Going to be doing some modding, to make the bike more comfortable and to attempt the impossible -- create a bike that I can ride on the track and then the street without pounding my kidneys into dust. First impressions is that the suspension is set up soft, so it's at least comfortable on 90% of the roads I ride. The bars were swapped out, as I didn't like the bend -- they hiked my elbows up like I was a supercrosser. The engine is pretty sweet, still gently breaking it it, but it seems pretty peppy, can easily go on the highway, and returned 58mpg. There are lots of cool bolt-ons for these bikes, so stay tuned. Goal is to have it broken in (as in 2000km) by the June trackday, so I can take it out with a clear conscience. 750km in and a month to go -- better get on it!